It has become common practice for persons giving lectures, demonstrations, advertisements, and the like, when making a presentation before a group of people, to use large pads and charts as visual aids. In order that these aids may be seen easily by all of the audience, it has proved to be beneficial to mount them on an easel. In this way, the lecturer has his hands free for pointing or marking on the pad, while, at the same time, his audience has no difficulty in seeing his displays. The desirable features of such an easel include being compact and light in weight when dismantled for storage or transportation. A typical panel of this type is shown in the patent of Albee U.S. Pat. No. 4,017,049, where the easel takes the form of a tripod that can be collapsed when not in use. Other easels of this type are shown in the Goodstein U.S. Pat. No. 2,550,550; Carver U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,116; Clyburn U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,687; Albee U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,654; and Nakatani U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,174.
A number of difficulties have been experienced, however, in the manufacture and use of the prior art easels. For instance, while it has been convenient to use extruded aluminum tubing in the structure and to fasten with rivets, these rivets have a tendency to interfere with sliding action between telescoping parts. It has been found, also, that some of the pads and displays have a tendency to bend or fold at their upper portions; while the use of a horizontal bar can remove this problem, such a bar must be rather long and, therefore, presents a problem when one attempts to fold the easel into a compact package. These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art devices have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.
It is, therefore, an outstanding object of the invention to provide an easel which is particularly light in weight and can be folded into a compact package for storage and transportation.
Another object of this invention is the provision of an easel formed of aluminum tubing assembled by the use of rivets, wherein the rivets do not interfere with the sliding of telescoping parts.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of an easel having excellent support for a display at its upper end, which support presents no problem when collapsing the structure.
Another object of the invention is the provision of an easel having a horizontal upper support bar, whose assembly structure does not involve complex and expensive elements.
A still further object of the invention is the provision of an easel which is simple and rugged in construction, which can be easily manufactured from readily-available materials, and which is capable of a long life of useful service with a minimum of maintenance.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a display easel which has an uncluttered and artistic appearance.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of parts set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appended hereto.